The World's 50 Greatest Leaders

Apr 19, 2018 - By Fortune Editors

Our annual list of the thinkers, speakers, and doers who are stepping up to meet today’s challenges.

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ILLUSTRATION BY PAUL RYDING

43. Balkrishna Doshi
Architect, India
This year’s Pritzker Prize, architecture’s highest honor, went to India’s Doshi, who has spent the bulk of his 70-year career championing accessible housing, earning the moniker “the architect for the poor.” His designs include the Aranya low-cost housing project in Indore, a labyrinth of homes and courtyards that provide around 80,000 residents with a balance of open spaces and communal living, and the mixed-income Life Insurance Corporation Housing in Ahmedabad, where several generations of a family can occupy levels of the same building. Underlying all his work is the ideal that all economic classes deserve good housing.